Headline: Harmony proposes chain rollback after forged ONE spreads — plan would erase 109k+ user transactions Harmony has proposed rolling its blockchain back to two checkpoints from Aug. 11 after a forged mint of ONE tokens propagated across the network. The recovery plan would discard all blocks after those checkpoints — including more than 109,000 regular transactions — in order to remove the illegitimate supply and restore a single, reviewed chain state for validators. What Harmony is proposing - Validators would preserve shard 0 block 92,730,034 and shard 1 block 94,978,278, both stamped 11:25:37 p.m. UTC on Aug. 11, and restart the network from replacement databases built around those checkpoints. New blocks would begin at heights 92,730,035 (shard 0) and 94,978,279 (shard 1). - Client v2026.1.2 will be set to reject the abnormal block hashes linked to the incident so validators won’t accept the affected history after the restart. - Harmony identified the first confirmed forged mint at shard 0 block 92,730,036. Block 92,730,035 had no regular or staking transactions, receipts or gas usage and shared the same state as 92,730,034; Harmony chose 92,730,034 as a one-block safety buffer and because recovery artifacts were prepared around that block. Why Harmony is replacing databases rather than “rewinding” Harmony says its in-place –revert function mainly moves chain heads and can leave later receipts, indexes, snapshots and cross-shard data intact. Those remnants, the team warned, could preserve an attack route or cause validators to reach inconsistent states. A full replacement database provides a single, reviewed state for all validators to resume consensus from. Options considered and rejected - Burning or repairing the forged ONE was rejected because much of the supply already flowed through exchanges, DEX pools, contracts and many wallets — removing tokens at individual destinations risks affecting unrelated users’ funds. - A blacklist was dismissed because it would leave the forged supply in existence while potentially restricting wallets that hold legitimate assets. - Selective transaction replay was ruled out because the replacement chain state would differ from the discarded chain, so identical transactions might have different outcomes. - Token migration was considered but would be significantly more disruptive. Scale and user impact Harmony built a shard-0 archive spanning blocks 92,730,035 through 92,871,662 (141,628 consecutive blocks) to measure the rollback impact. The archive contained: - 109,126 regular transactions and 315 staking transactions, with 109,441 exact transaction-to-receipt matches. - 95.80% of regular transactions (104,545) were classified as automated activity. - DEX automation accounted for 99,863 transactions: 75,430 successful swaps and 11,804 failed bot attempts. The team cautioned that the number of discarded transactions is not the same as the number of affected users. Only 22 regular transactions were simple native transfers with no obvious dependencies in the available data; 860 raised questions about balances, nonces or later spending; 80,630 depended on contract or blockchain state; and 27,614 were failed transactions, incident-linked activity, or movements involving exchanges, bridges and consolidation routes. All 315 staking transactions also depend on chain and epoch state and therefore can’t be trivially replayed. Tracing the forged ONE Harmony’s investigators mapped the flow of the minted ONE. One wallet attempted 534 transfers of 5 billion ONE each within 106 seconds; 477 transfers succeeded, moving 2.385 trillion ONE. Tracing followed funds through standalone wallets, exchange accounts, DEX routers and pools, liquidity provider positions, bridge contracts, wrapped ONE, staking wallets and high-volume service wallets. - The team built a time-ordered graph from the wallets tied to the forged mints and capped attribution to each wallet’s available balance so the same tokens aren’t double counted as they move. - Earlier tracing reconciled more than 99.9% of the forged ONE to wallet or service boundaries; a later model reconciled almost all of the amount and fees up to the chosen cutoff. - Harmony stressed that route coverage does not equate to identifying the individuals controlling destination addresses — many destinations are pooled service accounts or contracts holding funds on behalf of many users. Removability limits and risks Forged ONE sitting in a standalone wallet may be isolatable, but tokens that entered exchange wallets, liquidity pools, bridges, staking positions or other shared balances can’t be safely removed without risking unrelated users’ funds. That significantly limits the amount that can be destroyed or clawed back. Context and precedent Harmony reviewed similar past incidents. In December 2025 Flow revised initial rollback plans after a $3.9 million exploit, favoring targeted burns and phased restarts following pushback from bridge operators and other participants. In June 2022 Harmony itself lost about $100 million from a Horizon Bridge compromise and later worked with exchanges, law enforcement and analytics firms to recover some assets — a history the team says informs its current approach. Investigation and next steps Harmony says an independent third-party security firm corroborated the forged mint and the main fund-flow findings. The project is working with exchanges, bridges and law enforcement to preserve records and assess how discarding post-checkpoint activity will affect counterparties and users. Under the proposed recovery, all blocks after the selected checkpoints — including regular transactions unrelated to the forged mint — would be removed. Implication for users If the rollback proceeds, many automated trades and user transactions executed after the checkpoints would be wiped from chain history. Harmony is coordinating with affected parties to determine next steps and to minimize disruption where possible, but the rollback’s scope means some user activity will be irrevocably discarded on-chain. We’ll continue to monitor Harmony’s recovery decisions and report updates as the team finalizes procedures and coordinates with exchanges and investigators. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news